1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image communication apparatus and, more particularly, to an image communication apparatus having a function of storing an image in a detachable storage medium.
2. Related Background Art
As a conventional apparatus of this type, a facsimile apparatus which has an image data reading means and a means for storing read image data, and which transmits image data after it buffers the image data to be transmitted in an image memory is known.
In this arrangement, from the viewpoint of the action of an operator, he or she can designate a destination station without waiting for the end of a communication period whose duration tends to be influenced by a communication performance of the destination station, and can load an original in a memory. Thus, the operator can recover the original, and can perform another work.
As a conventional storage means constituting the image memory described above, a semiconductor memory, a magnetic disk (e.g., a hard disk), and the like are used.
However, since the conventional storage means is fixed to the apparatus, data associated with communications (image data, records of communications with other stations, telephone numbers of destination stations, and the like) cannot be managed in units of a plurality of operators who commonly use the apparatus, resulting in inconvenience.
Thus, in place of conventional non-exchangeable storage media, for example, a floppy disk, a memory card, and the like may be used as storage media.
In this arrangement, however, since the recording media are exchangeable, problems which are not recognized at all in an apparatus which uses conventional non-exchangeable media are posed. For example, in a memory transmission mode, if a storage medium (e.g., a floppy disk) which stores transmission image data is unloaded from the apparatus during transmission, the following data transmission can no longer be performed.
As applications associated with a communication apparatus which stores image data in a detachable storage medium, U.S. application Ser. No. 855,704 (filed on Apr. 25, 1986: U.S. Pat. No. 4,827,349), U.S. application Ser. No. 914,652 (filed on Oct. 2, 1986: U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,385), U.S. application Ser. No. 911,779 (filed on Sep. 26, 1986), U.S. application Ser. No. 281,898 (filed on Dec. 6, 1988: U.S. Pat. No. 4,910,785), U.S. application Ser. No. 267,732 (filed on Nov. 3, 1988), U.S. application Ser. No. 942,208 (filed on Dec. 16, 1986), U.S. application Ser. No. 147,224 (filed on Jan. 22, 1988), and U.S. application Ser. No. 516,301 (filed on Apr. 30, 1990) are known.
However, no proposals which can solve the above-mentioned problems have been made yet.